Kaine: I Had to Give Up Job, Healthcare to Run for Senate

Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine, a Democrat, defended his record of public service and blasted Republican rival George Allen for suggestions Kaine was “hand-picked” by President Barack Obama to run for office.

“His suggestion that, somehow, I’m running for office just because somebody else asked me to — I’ve not lived my life that way,” Kaine told Candy Crowley, host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” during an interview that aired Sunday. “I had to give up a job and a salary and healthcare benefits to run for the U.S. Senate.”

Kaine, a former Virginia governor, said his career as a missionary in Honduras, a civil-rights lawyer, a city councilman, a mayor and a lieutenant governor speaks for itself, and he criticized his opponent for making mean-spirited comments.

“That’s why we’re having such significant problems,” Kaine said. “The whole inability to reach any deal on our fiscal responsibility going forward is not because of an absence of ideas, it’s because people won’t work together.”